: Re: First Person vs. Third Person: Advantages and Disadvantages? My name is Alex and I'm writing a fantasy novel. I don't know if I should use first or third person narration. First person writing

@Ravi5107385

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You might not really know what happens when you try each approach until you use both, say to tell the same short story twice.

I'm currently working on the fourth book in a series, and the first one to use first-person narration because I really wanted to get inside one particular person's head for it. I usually don't like first-person, because it limits me to what one character sees and thinks. (Well, you could rotate between several first-person narrators, you also might want to try that.) However, in book 3 I introduced a character who successfully deceives people very well, and in book 4 I wanted to show what she was like on the inside and give the reader a very different perspective on her.

But what I want to focus on is not why you'd try switching narrative styles, but what may happen if you do. Without even trying, I find myself writing in a very different way as her. Her sentence structure and vocabulary aren't what I normally use, and I know if I chose a different first-person narrator such things would change again. My recommendation would be to see whether you catch yourself "becoming" the character in that way when you attempt first-person narration. If you don't, it's probably not worth writing as them; but to know whether you pull it off, you also need to try a third-person narrative to see the way "you" write.

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